Kassandra Darnell

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Secrets of Dumbledore” Movie Review

“Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is the third

movie in J.K. Rowling’s prequel franchise diving deeper into the world of “Harry Potter.”

Picking up from the previous movie, “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” this installment follows

Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he and his friends help Albus Dumbledore (Jude

Law) try to apprehend Gellert Grindelwald’s (Mads Mikkelson) plans to start a war with the

muggles as an attempt to better the wizarding world so they will no longer have to hide.

I think my biggest issue with this movie is that the plot lines do not need an entire

movie in order to be resolved. The “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, as a whole, continues to feel

very drawn out for the sake of creating more movies. The first “Fantastic Beasts” movie was

easily the most enjoyable. It explored new aspects of the Wizarding World that had not

been expanded on in the initial “Harry Potter” franchise, including the American politics of

this world, brand new magical creatures and more advanced magic that Harry and his

friends would not have been capable of. But as the franchise continues, it draws away from

the aspects of the world that made that first movie so enjoyable. I feel that if the plot lines

that included Dumbledore had been introduced in that first film, the franchise would feel

more cohesive, and the second and third films could have easily been combined into one

movie so that the plot lines don’t feel so drawn out. As a result, this movie felt extremely

slow and boring at times.

There were also a lot of parts of this movie that left me very confused. I liked that

there was more explanation into the politics of the entire Wizarding World, especially
because at this point we’ve only seen the British and American Ministries of Magic, but

there was a lack of explanation for these news aspects of politics. A large plot line is that

Grindelwald is trying to run for some kind of election that seems to be for a ruler of the

entire Wizarding World, but there is no explanation of what this political position is and

how it affects the entire world. It also does not make any sense for it to be possible to have a

single world leader when there are already different governments established in each

country. We are also shown other candidates for this election, as well as certain political

figures that are meddling in the election, but there is no explanation of who they are.

Another aspect of this film that confused me was some of the magic. Throughout the movie,

it seems that Dumbledore is able to use his magic to pull himself and other characters into

some other dimension that is not affected by magic. But there is zero explanation for this

magic, so the viewer is left to try and guess the mechanics behind it. There was also a major

continuity error with the brief appearance of Professor Minerva McGonagall, from the

original “Harry Potter” films, who canonically is not born until 1935. This franchise takes

place in the late 1920s.

Another aspect of this movie that rubbed me the wrong way is how Dumbledore’s

sexuality is handled. In the original “Harry Potter” series, Dumbledore’s sexuality is never

mentioned and J.K. Rowling confirmed at an event several years ago that the character is

gay. This caused a lot of backlash from the LGBTQ community at the time because simply

stating that a character is gay with nothing confirming it in the text is not adequate

representation. In this movie, Rowling confirms Dumbledore’s sexuality in the movie with a

few very brief scenes that state he and Grindelwald were romantically involved during their

youth. But as a member of the LGBTQ community, I feel that representation for the
community should be positive. Queer people have been villainized and demonized

throughout a majority of history and many villains in media are often queer-coded, such as

Ursula from “The Little Mermaid” or Scar from “The Lion King,” to name a few, which

perpetuates these negative beliefs toward the LGBTQ community. Having Dumbledore’s

only love interest in all of “Harry Potter” media be a genocidal dark wizard is simply not the

kind of queer representation that is needed. Queer representation should be positive. It’s

what the community deserves.

Overall, this movie was very mediocre. I feel that for big-time “Harry Potter” fans, it

is an enjoyable dive further into the Wizarding World. But for the casual fan, it does not

offer much to its audience. Maybe the last two movies that are planned for the franchise will

be more entertaining, but this one fell flat for me and felt more like a filler for the sake of

expanding the plot than something that really added to the franchise.

Plot: 3

Entertainment value: 4

Acting: 6

Technical aspects: 7

Reviewer’s score: 3

Good:

Deeper look into the politics of the Wizarding World

More magical creatures introduced

Lots of cool magic scenes

Bad:

Audience is left confused due to a lack of explanation for certain aspects of the movie

Plot falls flat and and could have been incorporated into the previous movie

Poor representation of LGBTQ characters

Overall very forgettable compared to the rest of the franchises set in this worl